Feb. 4. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



103 



lique of the ancient priestly predilection for female 

 attire ? A. C. M. 



iHwar $atts>. 



Russia and Turkey. — The following paragraph 

 from an old newspaper reads with a strange signi- 

 ficance at the present time : 



" The last advices from Leghorn describe the genius 

 of discord still prevailing in the unfortunate city of 

 Constantinople, the people clamouring against their 

 rulers, and the janissaries ripe for insurrection, in con- 

 sequence of the backwardness of the Porte to commence 

 hostilities with Russia." — English Chronicle, or Uni- 

 versal Evening Post, February 6th to 8 th, 1783. 



J. Locke. 



Social Effects of the severe Weather, Jan. 3 

 and 4, 1854. — The daily and local newspapers 

 have detailed many public incidents of the severe 

 weather of the commencement of 1854: such as 

 snow ten yards deep ; roads blocked up ; mails 

 delayed ; the streets of the metropolis, for a time, 

 impassible ; omnibuses with four horses ; Hansom 

 cabs driven tandem, &c. The effects of the storms 

 of snow, socially, were not the least curious. In 

 the neighbourhood of Manchester seventy persons 

 were expected at an evening party, one only 

 arrived. At another house one hundred guests 

 were expected, nine only arrived. Many other 

 readers of your valuable paper have, no doubt, 

 made similar notes, and will probably forward 

 them. Robert Raweinson. 



Star of .Bethlehem. — Lord Nugent, in his Lands, 

 Classical and Sacred, vol. ii. p. 18., says : 



" The spot shown as the place of the Nativity, and 

 that of the manger, both of which are in a crypt or 

 subterraneous chapel under the church of St. Katherine, 

 are in the hands of the Roman Catliolicks. The former 

 is marked by this simple inscription on a silver star 

 set in the pavement : 



* Hie de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est.'" 



The Emperor of the French, as representative 

 of the Latin Church, first raised the question of 

 the sacred places, now likely to involve the Pent- 

 archy of Europe in a quasi civil war, by attempt- 

 ing, through the authority of the Sultan of Turkey, 

 to restore the above inscription, which had been 

 defaced, as is supposed, by the Greek Christians ; 

 and thereby encountering the opposition of the 

 Emperor of the Russias, who claims to represent 

 the Eastern Church. T. J. Buckton. 



Birmingham. 



Origin of the Word " Cant." — From the Mer- 

 curius Publicus of Feb. 28, 1661, Edinburgh : 



" Mr. Alexander Cant, son to Mr. Andrew Cant 

 (who in his discourse De Excommunicato trucidando 

 maintained that all refusers of the Covenant ought to 



be excommunicated, and that all so excommunicated 

 might lawfully be killed), was lately deposed by the 

 Synod for divers seditious and impudent passages in 

 his sermons at several places, as at the pulpit of 

 Banchry ; ' That whoever would own or make use of 

 a service-book, king, nobleman, or minister, the curse 

 of God should be upon him.' 



" In his Grace after Meat, he praid for those phana- 

 ticques and seditious ministers (who are now secured) 

 in these words, ' The Lord pity and deliver the precious 

 prisoners who are now suffering for the truth, and close 

 up the mouths of the Edomites, who are now rejoicing ; ' 

 with several other articles too long to recite." 



From these two Cants (Andrew and Alexander) 

 all seditious praying and preaching in Scotland is 

 called " Canting." J. B. 



Epigram on Four Lawyers. — It used to be 

 said that four lawyers were wont to go down from 

 Lincoln's Inn and the Temple in one hackney 

 coach for one shilling. The following epigram 

 records the economical practice : 



" Causidici curru felices quatuor uno 

 Quoque die repetunt limina nota 'fori.' 

 Quanta sodalitium praestabit eommoda ! cui non 

 Contigerint socii cogitur ire pedes." 



See Poemata Anglorum Latina, p. 446. Lemma, 

 " Defendit numerus." — Juv. J. W. Farbeb. 



muzritsi. 



CONTRIBUTORS TO " KNIGHT S QUARTERLY 

 MAGAZINE." 



I shall feel exceedingly obliged if you or any of 

 your correspondents will inform me who were the 

 writers in Knighfs Quarterly Magazine, bearing 

 the following fictitious signatures: — 1. Marma- 

 duke Villars ; 2. Davenant Cecil ; 3. Tristram 

 Merton ; 4. Irvine Montagu ; 5. Gerard Mont- 

 gomery ; 6. Henry Baldwin ; 7. Joseph Haller ; 

 8. Peter Ellis; 9. Paterson Aymer ; 10. Eustace 

 Heron; 11. Edward Haselfoot ; 12. William 

 Payne; 13. Archibald Frazer ; 14. Hamilton 

 Murray; 15. Charles Pendragon; 16. Lewis 

 Willoughby ; 17. John Tell ; 18. Edmund Bruce ; 

 19. Reginald Holyoake ; 20. Richard Mills; 21. 

 Oliver Medley ; 22. Peregrine Courtenay ; 23. 

 Vyvyan Joyeuse ; 24. Martin Lovell ; 25. Martin 

 Danvers Heaviside. 



I fear I have given you so long a list as to deter 

 you from replying to my inquiry ; but if you can- 

 not spare time or space to answer me fully, I have 

 numbered the writers in such a way as that you 

 may be induced to give the numbers without the 

 names, except you think that many of your readers 

 would be glad to have the information given to 

 them which I ask of you. 



Tristram Merton is T. B. Macaulay, who wrote 

 several sketches and five ballads in the Magazine ; 



